Social media (Facebook, twitter, YouTube, etc.) have made communication between/among individuals and groups much easier and faster. Consequently, these media have gained popularity around the globe. The number of social media users in the world, according to a recent estimate, is more than five billion while the figure for Africa is more than 600 million (Internet World Stats, 2021). The same source estimated the number of social media users in Ethiopia to be more than 21 million. The source further indicated that the internet growth rate in Ethiopia from 2000 to 2021 was 211.4%.
Despite their popularity, social media have negative consequences as well as benefits (Badri et al., 2017). In particular, if social media (SM) are not used properly, their disadvantages outweigh their benefits (Azizi et al., 2019). The use of SM, for example, can have both negative and positive influence on students’ academic performance (Talaue, 2018) depending on whether they use it for academic or nonacademic purposes. How long students stay on SM is also an important factor.
On the positive side, studies have found several positive impacts of social media use (SMU). Jacobsen and Forste (2011), for example, disclosed a significant positive association between SMU and face-to-face social interaction among first year university students. More specifically, for every hour increase on average in SM exposure, average face-to-face interaction increased by about 10 to 15 minutes. They concluded that SMU facilitates rather than replaces face-to-face social interaction. Other benefits reported in the literature include enhanced communication, social connection and technical skills (for a brief review, see Miah et al., 2012).
On the other hand, a number of studies have investigated the relationship between SMU and academic performance among university and high school students. Whereas the majority of the available studies reported negative association, a few studies have found positive associations at least in some academic activities. For example, Mingle and Adams (2015) found somewhat mixed results among high school students in Ghana. Whereas the results showed that social media use has negative effects such as poor grammar, late submission of assignment, less study time and poor academic performance, there were respondents who experienced improvement in their reading skills as a result of their participation on social media. It should be noted that researchers (e.g., Alwagait et al., 2015) have also found no linear relationship between SMU and GPA among university students. As indicated above, the majority of studies that investigated the association between SMU and academic performance reported significant negative association (e.g., Jacobsen & Forste, 2011; Miah et al., 2012; Nsizwana et al., 2017). That is, obsessive use of SM among students is associated with lower academic performance, academic scores or GPA.
But what does the literature indicate in relation to the association between purpose of students’ SMU and their academic performance on the one hand and between time spent on SM daily and academic performance on the other? A brief review of the literature follows.
Purpose of Social Media Use and Academic Achievement
Students can use SM for different purposes. Many use SM simply to kill their time and for fun while others use them for educational purposes (Akyildiz & Argan, 2012; Sanchez et al., 2014). Still others use social media to discuss different issues with people who are similar to them, share information, establish or maintain relationships, get entertained and share media such as pictures and videos (Gwena et al, 2018).
Students may use SM for one purpose or another but so long as they use them for nonacademic purposes, the use would compete for students’ attention as well as their time (Kirschner & Karpinski, 2010). That is, if a student for example uses SM exclusively for recreational purposes, this kind of use would reduce the student’s time for study or doing homework. On the other hand, if students use SM for academic purposes, such use could be worthwhile because it may help the students benefit academically from their stay on SM and perform well in school.
Unfortunately, studies show that most students tend to use SM for social rather than academic purposes. According to Akyildiz and Argan (2012), for example, even though students use Facebook for social and educational purposes, they mostly use SM for social purposes (e.g., to have fun, to contact with friends, to follow photos, videos and events) rather than for education or schooling purposes. Research (e.g., Mulisa & Getahun, 2018) has also shown that the leading perceived benefits of SMU for secondary school students are recreational and relational; i.e., the role of SMU on students’ academic activities is not a primary consideration for secondary school students.
In general, despite differences in the exact proportions they reported, most studies consistently showed that far smaller proportions of students, be they high school or college students, used social media mostly for academic purposes. A quick survey of available studies by the present authors indicates that the proportion of students who use social media for academic purposes could be as small as one percent (Kolhar et al., 2021), 6.4 percent (Alharahsheh & Obeidat, 2019) or 16.2 percent (Kolan & Dzandza, 2018). Associated with this, there is a fear among parents, teachers, and leaders of high schools and colleges that if students use SM mostly for recreational and social purposes rather than for academic purposes, such use would detrimentally affect their academic performance.
In brief, as with parents and teachers, researchers are concerned that students’ SMU mostly for nonacademic purposes would negatively affect their academic performance. Despite the concern, only a handful of researchers (e.g., Hameed et al., 2022) have directly investigated the issue. That is, the topic has so far attracted limited research attention. A study of the academic performance of students who use SM mostly for academic purposes and those who use SM mostly for non-academic purposes is therefore warranted.
Time Spent on Social Media and Academic Performance
If most students use SM for nonacademic purposes as shown above, another cause for concern would be how long would they stay on SM. If students cannot manage their out-of-school time properly for academic activities, their academic performance will suffer for they will have lesser time for study and doing homework. There is evidence to support that time spent on academic activities has a significant positive association with GPA even after controlling for previous performance (Jacobsen & Forste, 2011). That is, spending longer time doing academic activities would increase students’ GPA. Thus, the main question would be whether students can have enough time to spend in academic activities if they use SM for nonacademic activities.
Earlier studies that compared the academic performance of students who use and those who do not use SM have reported significant difference. For example, according to Kirschner and Karpinski (2010) college Facebook users have lower GPAs than students who are non-users of the site. The main explanation advanced was that users spend much more of their time on Facebook than reading compared to those who did not use Facebook. The next question focuses on SM users who differ in the time they spend on SM.
A number of studies have found statistically significant negative correlation between time spent on SM and students’ academic performance or GPA in the United States (Jacobsen & Forste, 2011; Kirschner & Karpinski, 2010; Paul, et al., 2012), Europe (e.g., Rouis et al., 2011), Asia (e.g., Jamil et. al., 2020) and Africa (e.g., Nsizwana et al., 2017). That is, as students spend more time on SM, their academic performance or GPA tends to become lower. Evidence further shows that this relationship holds even after controlling for offline time use (Jacobsen & Forste, 2011). In contrast, other studies (e.g., Alwagait et al., 2015; Negussie & Ketema, 2014) have reported no significant relationship between time spent on SM and their academic performance or GPA. Thus, a re-examination of the relationship is necessary.
Problem Statement
As shown above, studies have reported mixed results (negative in several studies but no relationship in others) regarding the relationship between time spent on SM and academic performance. Results reported by few researchers (Hameed et al., 2022) also suggest the need for further empirical evidence about the relationship between the purpose of SMU and academic performance. More importantly, to our knowledge no study has thus far investigated the interaction of the two variables (time spent on SM and purpose of SMU) and its effect on students’ academic performance. It is useful to know, for example, whether spending more time on SM for education rather than non-education purposes benefits students’ academic performance.
On the whole, the literature suggests further research on the role of the purpose of SMU, time spent on SM and their interaction in relation to students’ academic performance. The present study therefore sought to answer the following research questions.
-
Does the purpose for which students use SM relate in any significant way to students’ academic (that is, English, mathematics and chemistry) performance?
-
Does the amount of time spent on SM make a significant difference on students’ academic performance?
-
Is the time spent-by-purpose interaction effect statistically significant? That is, do the time students spend on SM and purpose of their SMU interact to influence their academic performance significantly?
Obtaining answers to the above questions is useful for several reasons. The findings may present evidence to guide parents’ effort to make their children’s SMU purposeful. For example, the findings can provide information to parents regarding what aspects of their children’s SMU (time, purpose or both) their monitoring should target. Similarly, the evidence can help teachers in guiding students and their parents on how children should use SM fruitfully. While the above points show the findings’ potential practical contributions, the findings can contribute theoretically by extending the existing literature in terms of the role of the (time-by-purpose) interaction effect.